Women's Cricket World Cup: A glance at history ahead of the 2022 edition

ICC Women's Cricket World Cup: Before the Women's World Cup 2022 begins, here is a glance at the history of this mega event. Australia have won the trophy record six times. Find more about it here.

The 12th edition of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup is upon us and it will be played among eight top-ranked teams of the World between March 4 to April 3, 2022, in six different cities of New Zealand, namely Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton, Tauranga and Wellington.

The eight participating teams are Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and West Indies. 

But before we discuss the current World Cup, a glance at the history of the mega event would be a great precursor for cricket fans. 
 

The Trophy Winners

Australians are the most successful team in the tournament history, winning the World Cup six times, a record in terms of all World Cups, men’s or women’s. The Southern Stars won it in 1978, 1982, 1988, 1997, 2005 and 2013. 

On the other hand, the inventors of the game, England have won the World Cup on four occasions as well and are the defending champions. They won it in  1973, 1993, 2009 and 2017. 

New Zealand or the Whiter Ferns as they are known, won it in the 2000 edition and are the only other team apart from England and Australia to have won the World Cup. 

Which team have played how many times?

Australia, England and New Zealand, the three trophy winners are also the only three teams that have participated in all previous 11 editions and will participate in the 12th as well. 

The second team with the most participation apart from the three are  India, who missed only two tournaments, the inaugural edition in England in 1973 and the fourth edition in Australia in 1988.

West Indies, who participated for the first time in the 1993 World Cup are participating for the seventh time and so are South Africa while this will be the sixth appearance for Pakistan. 

Also, it will be the first time in 25 years that a team will be making it’s World Cup debut as Bangladesh have made it to their debut ODI World Cup. 

Teams	Appearances	Best Results
Australia	12	Winner 1978, 1982, 1988, 1997, 2005 and 2013
England	12	Winner 1973, 1993, 2009 and 2017
New Zealand	12	Winner 2000
India	10	Runners up 2005 and 2017
West Indies	07	Runners up 2013
South Africa	07	Semi-Finalist 2000 and 2017
Pakistan	05	Super Six Stage 2009
Bangladesh	01	Debut in 2022

History of the World Cups

Women’s Cricket World Cup 1973: The inaugural World Cup

Believe it or not but a Women’s Cricket World Cup was held even before the Men’s as England hosted four teams, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago and two other teams were formed named Young England and International XI to compete at the seven-team event. 

It was held in a single-round-robin league format where each team played each team and the team with the most points was declared the winner. However, the final match of the tournament virtually became a final as both Australia and England have ended up at 17 points each from five games and the winner of the final game was going to top the league. 

Thanks to a brilliant century from Enid Bakewell, England posted 279/3 in its 60 overs and Australia in reply could only make 187/9 in their allotted overs. And thus England were declared the winners of the inaugural Cricket World Cup. 

Women’s Cricket World Cup 1978: The World Cup with least number of teams

In the second edition of the World Cup, India became an accidental host as the tournament, slated to be hosted in South Africa was deferred and rehosted by India due to the Sports Boycott of the nation citing its Apartheid rule. 

Originally, the Netherlands and West Indies were also slated to participate, but due to financial problems they backed out and eventually, four teams played the World Cup, the least for any World Cup in history. 

It was once again played in a round-robin format and Australia, which ended the tournament undefeated were crowned the champions 

Women’s Cricket World Cup 1982: The World Cup in Southern Hemisphere

The frequency for the next World Cup was back to four years and New Zealand was the hots of the tournament which for the first time was not played in a league format. 

This time around a total of five teams participated which included the four teams from the previous edition and an international XI side. 

Each team played the other thrice in what was a total of 30 league games and then the top two teams in the points table at the end of the league stage played each other in the final. A total of 15 venues were used for the tournament all across New Zealand. 

In the final at the now-demolished Lancaster Park, Australia defeated England by three wickets to lift its second World Cup title. 

Women’s Cricket World Cup 1988: Australia’s third victory in a row

After six years, yet another Women’s World Cup was organised, only the fourth and even after starting two years prior to the men’s tournament, the women’s World Cup’s fourth edition could be held only one year after the Men’s World Cup’s fourth edition.

In this world cup, once again only five teams participated but this time around, there was no International XI and no Team India. Australia won the World Cup, its third in a row by defeating England in the final by eight wickets. Netherlands and Ireland made their World Cup debuts in this tournament. 

Women’s Cricket World Cup 1993: Back to England

It was for the first time in 15 years that the Women’s Cricket World Cup went back to England. It faced financial difficulties as sponsors were hard to come by and for the first time, the Women’s Cricket World Cup had eight teams representing different nations. Denmark and West Indies made their World Cup debuts in this tournament. 

All the eight teams played each other once and the top two teams in New Zealand and England played each other in the final with England outplaying the first time finalists by 67 runs and winning the championship for the second time. 

Women’s Cricket World Cup 1997: A mega event indeed

For the first time ever, 11 teams participated in the World Cup and it was held across 25 venues in India with the final at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. 

The 11 teams were divided into two groups of five and six teams each with three teams being eliminated in the first stage and the rest of the eight teams moving to the Quarterfinals. It was also for the first time that quarterfinals and semi-finals were held in ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup. 

In the end, hosts India, Australia, New Zealand and England made it to the semi-finals where India were defeated by Australia by 19 runs while New Zealand defeated England by 20 runs. In the final, Australia beat their Trans-Tasman rivals comprehensively by five wickets to win their fourth world title

Women’s Cricket World Cup 2000: First Non-English, Non-Aussie winner

New Zealand hosted the World Cup for the second time and this time around they were able to win and break the English-Australian hegemony for the first and only time. 

The World Cup was reduced to eight-team once again and after a Round-Robin format, the top four teams qualified for the Semi-Finals which also included India and for the first time ever, South Africa. 

In the semi-finals, hosts New Zealand beat India by nine wickets while Australia defeated South Africa by nine wickets as well. It was also the first time ever that England weren’t able to make it to the Knockouts of the world event. 

In a close final at Bert Sutcliffe Oval in Lincoln, the White Ferns defended 184 to win the match by only four runs, even as Belinda Clark, the Aussie captain scored 91.

Women’s Cricket World Cup 2005: India makes it to their first final

It was after a gap of five years that the Women’s Cricket World Cup was held. It was also the first time that the African content and South Africa hosted the Women’s World Cup and the last time that it was held under the banner of the International Women's Cricket Council before it was merged with the International Cricket Council. 

This World Cup saw India getting into the final for the first time ever and registering its best-ever performance. India marched to the final after beating New Zealand by 40 runs in the semis but were beaten in the final by Australia by a huge margin of 98 runs. 

Australia won its fifth World title

Women’s Cricket World Cup 2009: First time England win it outside England

The World Cup remained in the Southern Hemisphere as Australia hosted it's second Women’s World Cup and a total of eight teams participated in it once again. The teams were this time divided into two groups of four each and one team was eliminated from each group at the end of the Group stage. And thus Sri Lanka and South Africa were eliminated. 

Later on, the six teams qualified for the Super Six stage and the top two teams in England and New Zealand made it to the final where England defeated New Zealand by four wickets to win the world title for the third time. 

Women’s Cricket World Cup 2013: Australia win record sixth title

It was once again hosted by India, which hosted its third ODI World Cup and shockingly exited at the Group Stage itself, even without making it to the Super Six. Australia lifted the trophy for the sixth time in a row as it defeated West Indies, who had made to it’s first-ever World Cup final, by 114 runs in the final held at Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai. 

Women’s Cricket World Cup 2017: The Indian Heartbreak

The last edition of the World Cup, held in England, was also the first World Cup in which India were almost on the brink of their first-ever World title in the women’s game, but hosts England snatched victory from the jaws or almost the stomach of defeat. 

Chasing 229 for victory, India at one stage were 191/3 with a settled Punam Raut and Veda Krishnamurthy in the middle. 

However, a match-winning spell from Anya Shrubsole, which saw her pick up five wickets in a span of just four overs, saw India finish at 219, needing nine runs to win with eight balls still to be bowled. 

India had a splendid run in the tournament, beating defending champions Australia in the Semi-Finals which saw Harmanpreet Kaur blast a majestic hundred. 

India’s chance to shine: Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami in Focus

India's Jhulan Goswami and Mithali Raj can actaully over take overtake the all time leading run-scorers and wicket takers in World Cup history as they are very close in the race. While Jhulan needs just four wickets in the seven games that India are sure to play to become the leading wicket taker in the World Cups, the Indian skipper Mithali needs 362 runs in this World Cup to take over New Zealand legend Debbie Hockley. 

Most Runs in Women's Cricket World Cup

Batter	Team	Innings	Runs
Debbie Hockley	New Zealand	43	1501
Janette Brittin	England	35	1299
Charlotte Edwards	England	28	1231
Belinda Clark	Australia	26	1151
Mithali Raj	India	29	1139

Most Wickets in Women's Cricket World Cup

Bowler	Team	Matches	Wickets
Lynn Fullston	Australia	20	39
Carole Hodges	England	24	37
Jhulan Goswami	India	28	36
Clare Taylor	England	26	36
Cathryn Fitzpatrick	Australia	25	33